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Next week we will be releasing our spring issue of the eCurrent. We decided to highlight some of the research going on in our community, as it is my observation that research embodies some of the most wonderfully positive activity happening in our backyard yet goes widely unreported. Even when it hits a headline, it does not bubble up to the level of importance given to Kim Kardashian. Also, even when noticed, many do not spend time thinking about the topic nor do any further learning on the subject matter. I question even how many will truly spend the time to read the issue we have constructed. Understanding the research of an astrophysicist who just observed a gravitational wave can be challenging and translating the deep science into tangible meaning and conversational language is difficult. We do however miss an opportunity to be uplifted if we don’t try.

As I state in my President’s letter opening the issue, the “R” in R&E Networks stands for research. Our companies and networks were founded to support the massively critical research going on in our membership. What that affords us at OSHEAN is visibility to the unbounded wonders of research; its people and its process. Our membership is currently doing research in almost every conceivable field from the deep physical sciences to healthcare to sociology and economics. One of the fascinating aspects of research is that many individuals on research journeys are very comfortable with the idea that they will never finish. Invariably, the journey will make discoveries that lead to more questions. Physicists for millennia have been searching for a unified theory of the universe. Deeper and deeper they go toward understanding only to find more unknowns. The sports analogy I use is for young tennis players that need to learn how to lose. The better they get, the better players they face forcing a lifetime of losing to some degree. In this issue of the eCurrent, we profile the particle physicists at Brown and their search for the “God Particle” (aka. The Higgs Boson) which was first observed in 2012. Observation of this mysterious particle answered and confirmed many theories in unified theory and while it was a monumental discovery, it opened new questions and led to an increase in research of “Dark Matter” to provide answers to the questions raised form the observation. In my humble opinion, Dark Matter was named for the fact that we know almost nothing about it yet it makes up about 85% of the mass of the known universe. I postulate that as soon as we learn more of dark matter and observe its behaviors, we will begin to name its components, probably after the physicists who have the most impact in the research.

There is a sense among most I talk to that the news of the day and the media in general focus on negative stories. The core of research however, is built on a strong foundation of hope. We at OSHEAN hope this next issue of our magazine instills a bit of that magic in you!